Improvement in hoisting apparatus



a. B. MASSEY & A. B. DARLING.

Hoisting Apparatus.

Patented Oct. 7,1873%.

GIDEON B. MASSEY AND ALFRED DARLING, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IIN HOISTING APPARATUS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.'143,519, dated October 7, 1873 application filed g August 4, 1 873. i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GIDEON B. MAssEY and ALFRED B. DARLING, both of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Hoisting Apparatus, of which thefollowing is a specification: y

This invention relates in part to the employment of a fluid retarder, or retarder to a hoisting apparatus, for controlling the descent of the carer traveling platform by gravity, sub-' stantially as described in an application for patent by the above-named MASSEY, filed July 19, 187 3. The'invention' consists in a combination, with the car 'or platform arranged to descend by gravity, of one or more fluid retarders, constructed and arranged for operation so that the same only presents a controlling resistance during the descent of the car, but is relieved from resistance. and much friction while the car is ascending by reason of the outer cylinder or case then moving in common and in the same direction with the piston or resisting-surfaces of the retarder. The invention also consists in a combination, with the car or traveling platform and with one or more retarders applied thereto, of counter-balances connected by chains with the platform, and arranged to pass over and gear with pitched wheels,whereby said chains are made to drive the retarders and so secure the safety of the car, or restrict its descent beyond the velocity to which the retarders may be set to limit it, and the counter-balances operate to keep the driving-chains of the retarders permanently in their places or from slipping. These chains, with their attached counter-balances, constitute safety chains or appliances, and are altogether independent of the hoisting rope or chain; and the invention furthermore consists in a certain arrangement of said chains in relation with a cross-tree secured to the center of the car, whereby, in case of any one of said chains breaking, the car will be prevented from tipping.

In the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a vertical section of a hoisting apparatus having my invention applied. Fig. 2 is a partly sectional elevation, at right angles to Fig. 1, of the upper portion of said apparatus. Fig. 3 is a plan of the working portion of the ap paratus 5 Fig. 4, a horizontal section on the 'line aw; and Figs. 5 and 6, an edge view and transverse section of one of the pulleys by which the retarders are operated, and chain in "gear with the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre-.

from whence it passes to the hoisting-drum be low. 'This hoisting-chain C' is totally independent of the safetychains, and may accumulate slack by catching of the car'in the hoistway, or otherwise, without afl'ecting the action of the safety-chains, that are only paid out in proportion to the descent of the car by gravity. F F are rotary fluid retarders, con structed upon the principle of a Massey or any other suitable rotary engine, but each of which is here shown as consisting of a cylinder, 0, revolving radial pistons cl, and a pivoted abutment, 6, arranged to occupy a tangential or oblique relation to the, circular travel of the pistons, and controlled by a rod and spring, the tension of which latter should be adjust able to suit different resistances or velocities required. We do not, however, restrict our selves to this particular construction of retarder, the object of which is to have a controlling eifect upon the car B when the latter is being lowered. Said retarders F F are filled with oil or any other suitable fluid, and when their pistons travel in direction of the arrow g which is when the car B is descending, and in proportion to the quantity of .fiuid permitted to pass the abutments will the speed of the descending car be determined. These retarders are connected with the car B by or through safety-chains G l G Q arranged to form attachment with the car at its several corners, at ff f f by or through a crosstree, H, which is pivoted at its center to the car, and braced at or near its extremities, in the vicinity of the corners of the car, by bridges g. The chains G G have attached to their one end acounter-balance, I, and pass over wheels or pulleys J J on the shaft of the one retarder, F, and over other wheels, J J on the. shaft of the n OFFICE.

or uprights of the hoist- V other retarder, F, down to the cross tree H,

V where said chains are attached at their oppothe chains G G G G may not only be properly guided, but so that said chains, which are suitably pitched, will gear with them, and thereby become the drivers of the retarders F F, the counter-balances I 1 serving to keep the chains in their places and from slipping. In this way the car descending by gravity has its speed, in lowering, effectually regulated by the retarders, and the arrangement of the chains G G G G and equalizing action of the pivoted cross-tree H, as regards division of the strain, is such that, even should one of the chains break, or any two thereof connected with diagonally opposite corners of the car, or, rather, of the pivoted crosstree H, the car would not only still be sustained, but all side tilting or.tipping of it be avoided; and the cross-tree H further serves to insure regularity of speed at the different corners of the car,

, should there be any. slight difference in dieimJeter of the pitched chain wheels or pulleys To do away with all resistance of the retarders and Motion consequent upon rotation of the fluid therein when the car is ascending, said retarders may be constructed as the one F of them is representedthat is, with its cylinder or case a and attached abutment 6 free to revolve in common and in like direction with its piston 01 when the car is moving upward, but so that said cylinder is locked from revolving when the car is making its descent, in order that it may then exert its proper retarding effect. This freedom of the cylinder 0 to revolve in the one direction, but not in the other, is obtained by means of a ratchet, i, in or connected with the cylinder and any number of pawls 7c biting therein.

What is here claimed, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is g 1. The combination, with the car or plat form arranged to descend by gravity, of one or more rotary fluid retarders, connected with the car by safety ropes or chains, and in which the outer cylinder or case of either retarder is free to move in common with its piston. when the car is ascending, but is locked from moving when the car is descending, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

2. The combination, with the retarders, of counter-balances connected by chains with the car and pitched wheels 011 the shafts of the retarders, whereby the chains are made to operate the retarders, substantially as specified.

3. The safety-chains G G G G arranged in relation with the car as described, in combination with the centrally-pivoted cross-tree H and car or traveling platform B, essentially as herein set forth.

GIDEON B. MASSEY. ALFRED B. DARLING. Witnesses:

CHAS. LEFLER, THos. L. CARPENTER. 

